On A Tripped Note
by AbbyH321
Summary: Finished & Edited! Marta has always been known for her mischief, and is not very liked by her teacher. But has one of her jokes accidentaly gone too far?


Disclaimer: I do not own Les or David. But I do own, Marta & Mark Bradbury, along with Mrs. Joseph.

12:57, I still had 2 whole more hours and eighteen more minutes until freedom, or at least until the end of the school day. I hated going to school, there was no point in my opinion. Who cares about what's happening in Europe or Africa?

I live in New York and I can read a newspaper if I wanna know what's going on. I sat in one room the whole day and had to write and listen and be quiet. What was the point of that? In this world if you get a job, it doesn't matter what else you know besides what to do for your job. It's called specialization, and frankly I'm a big believer.

When I get older I will work be a nurse for my dad. He runs a family practice. Why do I have to go to school when I can learn all I need to know from my father? And my teacher doesn't make it any easier. Mrs. Joseph is a very strict woman. I think she has some issues.

Heck, I'm in the fifth grade why does she feel she needs to hit us if we pass notes. She always says in her loud voice, 'Miss Marta Bradbury, if you do not keep yourself focused you will be living on the streets...' But she and I both know I'll just do it again anyway. What else is there to do in this god forsaken classroom?

1:01, man when was this going to end. I looked out the window and I could see people walking around the city. In a distance I could even see the Brooklyn Bridge. Because it was so hot out we had the windows open and you could even hear the bustle of the city. The trotting of horses and carriages, merchants trying to sell clothing or fruit. If you listened close enough you could even hear the newsies trying to sell the last of their papers.

I was friends with a couple of them, the newsies that is. Les Jacobs, sits in front of me in class. He was my best friend. My brother, Mark, had gone to school with David, until David had to drop out. Sometimes Mark goes to sell with him on the weekends for extra money. Les and I usually bug them to let us come along as well.

"Marta Bradbury!"

"Huh?" I turned back to the front of the classroom to see Mrs. Joseph looking straight at me. I must have been daydreaming a little more than I thought I was.

"Marta! I can't believe you!" Mrs. Joseph yelped. I gave a loud gulp. 'Here it comes,' I thought to myself. "Marta, if you cannot keep yourself focused you will be thrown out of this classroom!"

That's it? No big 'see me after class' ordeal? No beating? No extremely long and exhausting lecture on the importance of paying attention? Not even extra homework?

"Oh, and Marta," she continued unexpectedly, "I wish to see a one-thousand word essay entitled, 'Why School Is Important To Me' on my desk tomorrow morning."

The bell sounded and boy oh boy did I run out of that classroom. I ran right out of the building and down six blocks all the way home. I climbed the three flights of stairs no problem because of my over exaggerated frustration. I walked down the hallway and threw open the fourth door on the left, took two steps inside, kicked my shoes into the middle of the room and slammed the door shut.

"Where's the fire?"

I turned around to see Mark sitting at the dining table writing some sort of composition.

"I - hate - Mrs. - Joseph," I told him, taking a deep breath between each word. At that Mark put down his pencil and looked up at me.

"Now why would you say a thing like that?" he asked me.

"She was being extra boring, more than usual, and she had the window open so I started to watch everyone and she caught me and now I have to write a whole thousand words on why I love school by tomorrow!" I said all in one breath, "I'm 10 years old! Why can't I decide if I wanna be in school or not?"

Mark started to laugh. He slid his chair back, stood up. I had to look up pretty far to meet his eyes on his 6'1" self. And with me being only a measly 4'10" I had quite a distance up. I think he liked to stand next to me because it made him feel powerful. But it didn't bother me that much. Sure he could hold me back with one hand but that didn't mean I never tried as hard as I could.

"Are you done?" I asked him, noticing he had started to clean up his notes.

"Not even halfway," he responded.

"Then why are you leaving?" He stopped what he was doing and looked at me.

"Well I would imagine that you need all the space you can get for your huge essay," he said, by the middle of what he was saying he was already halfway out of the room, knowing I was going to try and tackle him for what he had said.

I cursed under my breath and let him go. He wasn't worth it.

I took a deep breath and walked over to the dining table. I took a pencil and a few pieces of paper out of my book bag and sat at the chair where mark was moments ago. I started with a border, I wrote my name, the date, room 214, and my teacher's name.

As I spelt out Mrs. Joseph I realized that she must be married to have the title of Mrs. But who would want to live with her? Just the thought of kissing a man made me shudder. But I quickly wiped that image from my mind and proceeded on with my paper.

I tried to think of anything else I could do that would shorten my essay. So I figured, why not a title? Across the top of the paper I wrote, "Why School Is Important To Me."

I skipped a line on the paper and began: School is important to me because. I sat there for a good ten minutes. What am I supposed to write? This was so ridiculous, I couldn't even make up an essay!

Completely frustrated with myself, I crumpled up the piece of paper and chucked it at the waste basket. Unfortunately, I was short by about three feet. I started to write a heading on the next piece of paper. But I must have been writing too hard because while I was writing my name the point snapped.

I reached into my book bag and pulled out another pencil. But instead of finishing my name I started to draw. I began with a face, but as I kept going it started to form the shape of Mrs. Joseph.

When I had finished with her face I decided to add some extra features. I drew her an extra long widow's peak, like the vampires, and fangs too, which I thought suited her quite well. I leaned back and admired my work. Not too shabby.

I finished my name at the top of the paper and titled my work. In big letters I wrote: My Teacher, The Vampire. I put the paper aside and pulled out another of what would be my third attempt.

This time around it was much easier to make stuff up to write about. I went on about how it will make me a better person in the future and what not. After I had finally finished I counted up my words and I came to a total of 1,284, four pages!

Relieved that I had completed the assignment I gathered all of my pages together and stuffed them in my book bag.

As I walked to my bedroom I passed the office, of which I noticed still had a light on. I pushed the door open to find Mark still at work on his paper.

"Uh, Mark," I said.

"What kid?" he asked me, still writing as he spoke.

"I finished it," I told him.

"Great," he said. Even though he answered me I don't think he heard a word I said.

"Ummm, goodnight," I said and I shut the door behind me.

"Marta!" I bolted up to see Mark standing at the foot of my bed completely dressed and ready to leave for school. "Why aren't you up?" he demanded, "we're gonna be late!"

"I know, I know," I said, as I slowly got out of my bed and walked over to my dresser. Mark continued to stay in my room to be sure I was really up. I looked over at him, "if you'd leave me alone then maybe I could get dressed," I said to him.

"I'm going," he said, raising his hands to the innocent position as he backed out of my room. I quickly got dressed and brushed my teeth. I swung my book bag over my shoulder and I was off.

Mark was waiting in the hallway for me and we took off out of the building and back to school. As soon as I reached my classroom as the bell sounded. I dug into my bag and pulled out my paper and put it on Mrs. Joseph's desk and darted to my seat.

Mrs. Joseph walked over to her desk and picked up my essay, "why thank you, Miss Bradbury," she said, she held up the paper to the class so that the writing was still facing herself, "now this is what I expect when...." But she never had time to finish her complement because the entire class broke out in laughter.

I looked around to see why everyone was laughing and then I saw it, on the back page of my paper, facing the class, was the doodle I had created of Mrs. Joseph the night before. Boy, was I dead.

"Now, now this is not in any way a laughing matter," Mrs. Joseph yelled to the class, trying to settle everyone down. She must not have seen the drawing, she thought we were laughing at something she said, there was still time.

Les turned around, "Marta, what did you do?" he whispered.

"It accidentaly wound up with my paper," I told him, "what am I supposed to do?"

"Get it back," he told me.

Mrs. Joseph placed the paper back down on her desk and started to write on the chalkboard, "copy this please," she said to us.

I took this as a very huge opportunity to save my life and got out of my seat and started to quietly and discreetly as possible walk over to her desk. I had just put on hand on my paper when Mrs. Joseph turned around, "Marta, what are you doing?" she questioned.

"Uh, I just wanted to, ummm, check my paper for spelling errors, you can never check too many times, you know," I said, the first thing coming to mind.

"Marta, I'm sure your composition is fine, now please take your seat."

And with that I turned around and headed back toward my seat, trying to think of a new plan. Mrs. Joseph, done writing on the board had now sat at her desk, picked up my paper, and started to read it.

Well, one thing was for sure, I couldn't go up there again. She would start to question me again, and I really need to work on my improvisational skills. I sat in my seat staring at the blackboard, trying to come up with a new plan.

Maybe I could get Les to get it. Les was my partner in crime, so to speak. Instead of copying the blackboard I wrote a note to Les: 'Go get my drawing!'

I reached forward and placed it on his desk. I saw him read the paper. Then he started to write back and passed the paper back over his shoulder. It said: 'How?' I looked up at Mrs. Joseph who had just finished with the first page, I was running out of time.

I thought for a moment and then began to write down my idea: 'I'll distract her, just get it, wait for best time.' I passed it back up to him and she gave me a thumbs up signal.

I raised my hand in the air, "Mrs. Joseph?" I said.

She turned around, "What now Marta?" she me.

"May I please go use the bathroom?" I asked her.

"Yes Marta, hurry back," she replied.

It was the perfect plan, I would go to the bathroom, lock the door and shut it, run back to the classroom and tell Mrs. Joseph she had to come unlock it, giving Les plenty of time to grab the drawing.

I got out of my seat and walked out of the room but as soon as I got to the door I tripped and fell, landing on my ankle. I yelled out in pain and Mrs. Joseph came over to me to make sure I was okay.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Les get out of his seat and head over to the front desk.

Even though I knew I was perfectly fine I wanted Les to have a little more time. "I think I hurt my ankle," I told Mrs. Joseph.

"Well, let me see it," she said and I got up and held out my foot. I looked back over at Les just in time to see him stuff the doodle into his pocket and dart back to his seat. As soon as he sat down I said, "I think it's fine Mrs. Joseph."

"Are you sure?" she asked me.

"Positive, everything's fine." I walked over to my seat and winked at Les.

Sure tripping over nothing in front of the whole class wasn't exactly part of the plan....but who had to know it wasn't?

THE END

A/N: I did actually trip in front of all my friends, actually kids about 5 years older then me during dress rehearsal on stage in front of all the parents and everything. I knocked over a table and all the props on the table went flying but I couldn't run off the stage because I had actually hurt my ankle.........very embarrassing.


End file.
